Read Online The Apocalypse Watch by Robert Ludlum - Free Book Online Page A

forward and aft cockpits sprang open; the pilot in pure white coveralls emerged from the former, his very much older passenger from the latter.
    “
Komm
,” said the flyer, nodding toward a motorcycle with a sidecar attached. “
Zum Krankenhaus
.”
    “Yes, of course,” replied the civilian in German, turning and lifting a black leather medical bag out of the aircraft. “I presume Dr. Kroeger is here,” he added, climbing into the sidecar as the pilot mounted the seat and started the engine.
    “I would not know, sir. I’m only to bring you to the medical clinic. I do not know any names.”
    “Then forget I mentioned one.”
    “I heard nothing, sir.” The motorcycle raced into one of the screened corridors and, making several turns, sped across the valley to the north end of the flatland. There, again covered by the screening, was the usual one-story structure, but somehow different. Where the other structures were basically solidly built of wood, this was heavier, sturdier—cinder block layered with concrete—with an enormous generator complex on the south side, the continuous hum low, powerful. “I’m not permitted inside, Doctor,” said the pilot, stopping the motorcycle in front of the gray steel door.
    “I’m aware of that, young man, and I’ve been told how to proceed. Incidentally, I’m to leave in the morning, at the earliest light. I trust you know that.”
    “Yes, I do, sir. The winds then are the best.”
    “They couldn’t be any worse.” The doctor got out of the sidecar; the flyer sped off as his passenger walked to the door, looked up at the camera lens above, and pressed the round black button to the right of the frame. “Dr. Hans Traupman by orders of General von Schnabe.”
    Thirty seconds later the door was opened by a man in his forties dressed in white hospital attire. “Herr Doktor Traupman, how good to see you again,” he said enthusiastically. “It’s been several years since the lectures in Nuremberg. Welcome!”
    “
Danke
, but I wish there were a less arduous way of getting here.”
    “You would dislike the mountain approach even more, I assure you. One walks for miles, and the snow gets heavier with every few hundred meters. Secrecy has its price.… Come, have some schnapps and relax for afew minutes while we chat. Then you’ll see our progress. I tell you, it’s remarkable!”
    “Drinks later, and we’ll chat as we observe,” countered the visiting physician. “I have a lengthy meeting with von Schnabe—not a pleasant prospect—and I want to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. He’ll ask for judgments and hold me accountable.”
    “Why am I excluded from this meeting?” asked the younger doctor resentfully as both sat down in the clinic’s anteroom.
    “He thinks you’re too enthusiastic, Gerhardt. He admires your enthusiasm but he doesn’t trust it.”
    “My God, who knows more about the process than I do? I
developed
it! With all respect, Traupman, this is my field of expertise, not yours.”
    “I know that and you know that, but our nonmedical general can’t understand it. I am a neurosurgeon and have a certain reputation in cranial operations, therefore he turns to that reputation, not to the real expertise. So convince me.… As I gather, according to you it’s theoretically possible to alter the thought process without drugs or hypnosis—that theory somewhere in the ozones of parapsychological science fiction, but then so were heart and liver transplants not too many years ago. How is it actually done?”
    “You practically answered that yourself.” Gerhardt Kroeger laughed, his eyes bright. “Take the ‘trans’ out of ‘transplant’ and insert the letters
i
and
m
.”
    “Implant?”
    “You implant steel plates, don’t you?”
    “Of course. For protection.”
    “So have I.… You’ve performed lobotomies, not so?”
    “Naturally. To relieve electrical pressures.”
    “You’ve just said another magic word, Hans.